Randy Begg, drummer and co-founder of Canadian band Wednesday, is shown at a rehearsal in 2017. Begg, the co-founder and drummer for 1970s Canadian band Wednesday, whose cover of "Last Kiss" preceded the one recorded by Pearl Jam, has died at 71. THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO-Linda Begg **MANDATORY CREDIT**
TORONTO – Randy Begg, the co-founder and drummer of 1970s Canadian band Wednesday, whose cover of “Last Kiss” preceded the one recorded by Pearl Jam, has died at 71.
The Oshawa, Ont.-born musician suffered a heart attack on Dec. 20, according to friend and band mate Paul Andrew Smith. He died suddenly in Belleville, Ont.
Smith called Begg “outwardly friendly and dedicated to his drumming,” saying he was known to friends as reliable and encouraging, especially when it came to making music.
The two met in the late 1960s in a chance encounter and went on to form Wednesday with other musicians in the years that followed.
The rock band scored a chart hit in 1974 with “Last Kiss,” a song originally recorded by Wayne Cochran. Their cover peaked at No. 34 on the Billboard Hot 100 more than two decades before Pearl Jam’s version would score them a hit single too.
Wednesday landed several more chart hits, including a remake of Mark Dinning’s “Teen Angel” and Elton John’s “Love You Baby” before their dissolution in the early 1980s.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 28, 2022.
